GOG: Gamers are not criminals and do not need DRM

The video games industry should follow in the footsteps of the music sector and rid itself of digital rights management (DRM).

That’s according to GOG North America boss Guillaume Rambourg who told Eurogamer that DRM does nothing other than punish loyal gamers.

"We totally believe that distributing games without DRM is a good thing for our industry," he said. Let’s make it easy and rewarding for gamers to buy games. They are not criminals and they do not need DRM.

"DRM is only impacting the good-hearted passionate gamers out there. The very same gamers who are ready to spend $50 or more to own their favourite triple-A title and support our industry.

"Our industry should be cherishing and treating all gamers with respect, those people who pay our wages, servers, development projects and what not. Instead, we just make it frustrating for them to buy games. How schizophrenic is that? DRM is not protecting any product. It is harming your fans and your brands in the long run."

Rambourg points out that DRM is already proving successful in games, not just for GOG, but also its partners – exactly the same as it has done in the music sector.

"If being a DRM-free platform was such a threat, then how come GOG.com welcomes 2m gamers a month, distributes 755 games as of today, has been profitable from the day one?” he argued

"We have never lost any partner who decided to give DRM-free digital distribution a try with us, which is something we are proud of. We want to make the world of gaming 100 per cent DRM-free, just like the music industry successfully did. It is just a matter of time until some remaining irrational fears vanish and we would be glad to speed up this process."

GOG earlier this month revealed its Steam-rivalling GOG Galaxy client.